New Idea I Need Help With: CaregiverDating.com

[george]

I've been taking care of my elderly mom (84) for about 4 years now. She got a really bad ear infection that went into her brain (a bit) and now has some balance issues that come and go... and severe tinnitus (an annoying buzz) that's there most-of-the-time...

What does this have anything to do with Internet Marketing? Well, I realized that with many baby-boomers having to care for elderly parents, and others having to care for special needs children etc... there should be a great market for a dating service helping these caregivers finding each other!

My question for Lynn and all of you is: how would you approach this? I just registered the domain: CaregiverDating.com. I'd like to start a full fledged dating site (membership site) - that would have an affiliate program so I could JV with the many caregiver sites etc. Problem is I've never set-up a membership site or a dating site.

I thought this might be an interesting project for discussion... How would you approach it?

I'd like to stick with something simple like Lynns site that has a free section (like this site) and a members only section, but I don't know how to set it up? Is that the right approach? How would I set-up the affiliate program? Help!

[Lynn Terry]

I use vBulletin for the forum software, and you can use iDev for the affiliate program.

It's an interesting concept. I assume people aren't actually searching for it specifically, but that it work well if you could get the caregiver sites that are already reaching your target market to promote it via your affiliate program.

[Georgann]

Good morning, George!

I grew up in Alhambra. I'm thinking 10 min SE of Pasadena is probably Temple City or there abouts. Do you have neighborhood parrots?

Your idea of caregiver dating is admirable. Having been a caregiver, I understand how isolated one becomes.. and how impossible having a relationship other than the one at hand can seem.

Have you plugged into any caregiver support groups in the area? Where you live is densely populated and there are service organizations for just about anything imaginable. Large hospitals, like Huntington Memorial or Arcadia Methodist, would be good sources for locating such groups. They have ombudsmen and social workers who could advise you. I suggest locating and attending different live meetings of those groups, meetings that will be attended by people who are care givers. You have an excellent opportunity to do market research in person. Ask the other people there what they do for R&R, if they date, how they manage that, if they'd like to date, etc.

I also suggest that you connect with caregiver forums and groups online. I typed 'caregivers' in Yahoo Groups and 2500 results returned. The majority of those won't be in relevent to what you're reseraching, but there's a lot of territory to explore.

Let the people you want to reach tell you what they want. That will shorten the amount of time you spend building an online community for them and they will have the experience they are looking for.

Best wishes,
Georgann

P. S. Severe tinnitus can be maddening. Mine is moderate and sometimes I can't hear regular conversation over the 'insects' in my head. If your mom has hearing aids, get her to wear them. Often they will help reduce the tinnitus, sometimes immediately, sometimes it takes a while. Even though it's not always an immediate relief, it's definitely worth sticking with for a few weeks. If she doesn't have hearing aids, look in to other types of tinnitus maskers. White noise, like a fan running will sometimes give relief also.

[george]

Thanks Georgann for the thoughtful post. I thank god that we finally got hearing aids (she was suffering a LOT until then)... Now with the hearing aids it's much more tollerable... Plus, we found a special pill that has helped too (although she still has to take sleeping pills and have a radio on all night long)... Oh, the pill she takes is a special one from the "house ear institute" in LA. they call it LBC complex, and it has been a lifesaver. She also takes 500mg of flush free Niacin (both pills 2 times a day).

Also, I really liked how you checked yahoo groups... I don't know why I didn't think of it - but I didn't. And I especially liked you using the R&R term (it opens the possibilities to more than just dating). And of course, asking people at a live group is always the best bet before spending any real money (I set-up a temporary WP blog to see if I get any feedback) - while I figure out the best way to go...

And my sister (In San Gabriel) get's most of the parrots... LOL

Again, I appreciate the feedback,

[george]

Thanks for the feedback lynn... I'll look into those... I wanted to look into a possible wp solution as well... since I never ran any kind of membership type site.